Baltimore County State Senator Jim Borchin is asked about a death penalty repeal legislation. he also sits on the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Download This File

WBAL's Robert Lang talks to Kirk Bloodsworth who was freed from Maryland's death row 20 years ago when evidence was uncovered that he was wrongly convicted of murder. Download This File

Governor Martin O'Malley says he believes the Maryland General Assembly has the will to repeal capital punishment this session.

O'Malley, who said Tuesday he will be making repeal a priority, says the death penalty is a waste of resources that could be better used to fight crime in more productive ways.

"Is it worth wasting taxpayer dollars on a policy that does not work," O'Malley told a rally hosted by the NAACP.

O'Malley said that later this week he will submit a death penalty repeal bill to the Maryland General Assembly later this week.

The potential repeal of capital punishment has received added attention recently, after Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he believes it will pass this year. Miller, who supports the death penalty, also predicted a repeal bill will be petitioned to the ballot for voters to decide in 2014.

Voters approved ballot questions on same-sex marriage and Maryland's version of the Dream Act in November. O'Malley said Tuesday: "I don't fear the judgment of the people of Maryland."

Four years ago, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, blocked a floor vote on a death penalty repeal bill, but now Miller believes the bill will be voted out of committee, allowing a floor vote.

He says senators who favor a repeal will not have to use a parliamentary move to bypass a committee vote.

"It's not going to be petitioned out of committee. A majority of the members of the committee will bring the bill to the floor," Miller told reporters after today's Senate session.

Miller says that he expects one of the opponents to the repeal will vote to support the bill just to get it before the full Senate.

Committee Chairman Brian Frosh agrees with Miller.

Baltimore County Senator Norman Stone who sits on the committee, is not going to change his vote.

"I don't generally do that. I don't vote to get a bill out of committee that I generally oppose," Stone told WBAL News.

Stone said he has not heard from the governor, Miller or anyone else asking him to change his vote.

"I guess they've given up on me," Stone told WBAL News.

O'Malley has been an outspoken opponent of the death penalty.

In 2009, he made a death penalty repeal part of his legislative agenda.

When the bill could not make it out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, lawmakers approved restrictions on death penalty prosecutions.

Miller said those restrictions are reasonable.

Executions have been on hold in Maryland since a 2006 Maryland Court of Appeals decision ordering the state to come up with a new execution protocol.

The governor has pointed out that it is costly to keep an inmate on death row, and no executions can move forward until a legislative committee comes up with new protocol.

"We're kind of stuck right now, where we're at. We have a protocol by statute, I do believe, a three drug protocol, one of which is not available in the United States," O'Malley told reporters last week.

A Baltimore Sun poll, released this week, shows that 48-percent of voters oppose a death penalty repeal, and 42-percent support it.